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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35650
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

If the villain of your story is a member of a certain group, how do you keep the story from being offensive to members of that group?

For example, one of the villain in my book is a WWII veteran. I want to make it clear I have nothing against veterans and they have my respect. What makes this character a villain is that he gets hired out to kill. The villain was one of the victims of the USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) incident. From this he lost most of his limbs and was left to rot in some old garbage nursing home. His only family is his billionaire son who doesn't have time for his old man and only takes care of his father for the good press. To put it simply his father is a prisoner of the nursing home, and from this his mind cracked, making him a prisoner of his time. And his son payed to give him robotic limbs for more good press and to sponsor an company who would give a big fat check for it. And from his delusions the veteran went out and made a lot of money getting hired out as an assassin, and with this upgraded his limbs into weapons.

Now after all of that backstory is out of the way is their anything I should be careful of when making character like this and how can I make this kind of a character without upsetting veterans, families of them, and people who have lost their limbs? Or, to make this question general, how can you make a very specific character villainous without offending someone? This seems like an especially tough question for a group that a lot of people respect, like veterans.

Original score: 15